Better control for Hanoi as tourist influx to continue till next year

Pedestrians gather at Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục Square in the walking area around Hoàn Kiếm Lake in the capital city.

PHOTO: Viet Nam News/Asia News Network

The capital city will issue regulations for the walking area around Hoàn Kiếm Lake in August, chairman of the city's People's Committee Nguyễn Đức Chung said on Monday.

At a meeting with voters of central Hoàn Kiếm District on Monday, chairman Chung said the committee has reviewed pressing issues concerning Hoàn Kiếm Lake's walking area, such as sanitation, dog walking, toy car rental services and poor-quality cultural events.

Hoàn Kiếm People's Committee has been assigned to develop a set of regulations for the area, which will be released next month, to address these issues, he said.

Hà Nội is witnessing an influx of tourists, as major hotels in the city are currently fully booked until the first quarter of next year, for the first time in 15 years, he added.

The capital city will continue to call for investment in developing entertainment venues and high-tech tourism attractions and building some 4,000 more hotels to meet demands of international and local tourists and turn tourism into a spearhead economy, he said.

Chung disapproved of a proposal by Hoàn Kiếm District to limit timings of the walking area during the summer to only the evenings (from 6pm to 2am of the following day) on weekends because it was very hot during the day.

"Records of the area during the last 43 weekends show only three extremely hot weekends and two rainy ones," he said.

"The remaining 39 weekends saw a very large number of pedestrians."

"We will not allow vehicles to enter the area during the day because that will not make it a tourism attraction," he said.

Chung said prohibiting traffic in the area during weekends is one of the pilot acts to implement the city's plan to limit the use of personal vehicles in inner districts by 2030, the VnExpress online newspaper reported.

The city's plans to develop metro lines have been approved by the Prime Minister, and so far three foreign and six local investors have expressed their wish to invest in these metro projects, he said.

Some 1,000 to 1,500 buses of different types will be added to the city's public transport system from now until 2030. Public bicycle services will also be launched.

The plan to limit the use of personal vehicles in the inner city by 2030 to ease traffic jams was approved by the city's People's Council.

Chairman Chung stressed that the city will not completely ban, but only limit, the use of motorbikes in some central areas of the inner city's districts.